If the Government is serious about containing graft and improving the ease of doing business, it needs to look within. The inefficient and incompetent bureaucracy must be overhauled
Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible, impossible. On April 1, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an informal meeting with all the Secretaries, the agenda was to “speed up the decision-making process”. Many Secretaries, however, used the occasion to ‘apprise’ Mr Modi as to why senior officers hesitate to take decisions, especially those involving discretion, which could end up giving pecuniary benefits to a private party.
The Secretaries wanted the Section 13 (l)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act to be removed so that they could work efficiently. Now, legal protection is already available to bureaucrats, as an officer of the level of the Joint Secretary cannot be interrogated or investigated without the sanction of the Government, which in reality amounts to other bureaucrats.
How corruption has grown unchecked in India can be seen from the fact that in 2014, this country ranks 85 among 178 countries on the global Corruption Perception Index. Hardly has any bureaucrat taken the initiative to curb this menace, which compels both big and small businesses to bribe officers to get their files moving.
The composite index is made up of a combination of surveys and assessments of public sector corruption by international agencies including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. Of the nine surveys and assessments used for India, most relied on expert opinion on the extent of corruption and the rule of law and only one polled the general public. Thanks to our inefficient bureaucracy, India, in 2014, ranked 142nd out of 189 countries in ‘ease of doing business’ ranking, formulated by the World Bank.
The bureaucrats try to have the best of both worlds, while in service or out of service, and mislead the powers that be. Not only do they escape responsibility at the highest level, but find scapegoats among at the level of peons and clerks, as happened in the 2G Spectrum case and the Petroleum Ministry leak case. The bureaucrats gang up together to save one another. Through their own inefficiency, incompetence and ineffectiveness, they are often responsible for much of the corruption in this country.
For example, last month, there was news of a woman, a certain Ms Ruby Choudhari, ‘illegally’ staying at the lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie for six months. Ms Choudhari has accused a senior official of the Academy (which trains civil services probationers) of taking bribes and providing her with a fake identity card to facilitate her accommodation.
She said: “I paid a bribe of five lakh rupees to the official for a job in the Academy’s library. I frequently visited the Academy to pursue my case, but I was not a regular resident.” She said the official also arranged for her a fake identity card that could be used at the Administrative Training Institute in Nainital. But instead of holding the Director of the Academy responsible for this situation, a security guard has been made a scapegoat and dismissed.
Another feature of the Government is inter-ministerial fights. Routinely, different departments and agencies of the Government go to the High Courts against one another, despite instructions to the contrary. For example, the Delhi Development Authority has approached the Delhi High Court against municipal corporations’ demand notice seeking payment of property tax around Rs530 crore.
Another problem is that of ghost officers. According to a September 2014 news report, 19 IAS officers are missing, some for over half-a-dozen years, and still they continue to be on the rolls of the Government. Most of these civil servants went abroad on study leave or some official assignments and never returned. Although it requires much effort to get into Government service, it seems like once the job has been secured, a recruit can choose not to attend office for several years. What is even more baffling is that the Department of Personnel and Training, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, is equally clueless.
It appears that the Government has become a rudderless boat without any sense of coordination. Despite being hesitant to use discretion, a vast majority of them function, without any fear that they will ever be called to the account. In 2003, the Central Vigilance Commission had, for the first time, issued an order on the acceptance of gifts. It brought out another circular on the same issue in 2004.
Observing that public sector units send gifts to a number of persons, including Government officials, the Central vigilance Commission said that, “this practice, at least, so far as Government servants are concerned, needs to be discouraged… The gifts are to be provided only to promote commercial/business interests and need not, therefore, be sent to Government officials who are only doing their duty”.
However, after having issued this directive, the CVC did little to ensure that it was followed. Not a single report has come in the public domain about the number of people caught accepting gifts and violating the guidelines. The recommendation has not even made it to the rule book yet. This writer himself is witness to the huge packets being taken by ‘special messengers’ to senior officials. One such senior official said that he had no place to keep all the gifts he receives on festive occasions, and recycles them as wedding gifts and birthday presents to his friends and relatives.
legally, any decision becomes a Government order only if the Minister-in-charge approves it. The job of the bureaucrat is to put all the facts before the Minister — not to assume the latter’s powers. Bureaucrats have bungled administration by adding layers of complex paperwork to every single task at hand. This has led to widespread corruption. The fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be. It exacts a toll on ourselves, our families, our friends, and especially our children.
In the end, however, the price we pay is well worth it, for it allows us to hold on to our dignity and safeguard the interests of the country. The Government of India should bear in mind what the Mahatma said: “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.”